In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Saturday 18 February 2023

Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Mark 9:2-13

Transparency

Let us imagine a beautiful manor, a beautiful very particular manor that is completely transparent. Outside there is an amazing seemingly endless park, lush and wonderful with nature. The manor's residents can gain access to the park and enjoy as much of it as they want by passing through special gateways. The gateways between the manor and the park are door-windows: they were designed to conserve the harmony and transparency of the park and, like the rest of the manor, are completely transparent  and not easily distinguished from the other windows (not doors) which cannot be opened because they are a part of the manor's structure. To make sure that the exact location of the gateways between the manor and the park are not forgotten and that the keys of the doors are not lost, the manor's residents assign servant-gatekeepers the job of carefully keeping a map of the doors and their keys.  Besides keeping the maps and the keys safe, the servant-gatekeepers were also expected to transfer the maps, the keys, and all useful knowledge to the new generations so that they could use them safely and freely. As time went by, feeling empowered by their knowledge and privileges and desiring a less marginal role and greater power over the manor and the park, the servant-gatekeepers started to keep the maps and keys for themselves, not allowing the residents to enjoy the park's beauty and power.  The residents, thus, found it difficult to find the park's gateways. They no longer knew where they were and, even if they found them by chance, they did not have the keys to open them. This state of affairs transformed the manor into a prison, the residents became lazy, ignorant prisoners, the beauty of the park was frustrated, life in the manor soul-destroying. Even though they still desired to go into the park, the manor's residents no longer had the necessary knowledge to do so, and they began to concoct all kinds of ways to get in. Some stroked and and kissed the windows imaging they were kissing and eating the fruits seen through the transparent glass.  Some would bang their heads against the glass, wounding themselves mortally. Some became supposedly assigned divine gatekeepers and pretended there were doors where there were not, making others dependent upon them. Others took advantage of the confusion to get their slice of power, applause, and glory.
Most of them began to draw, copying  directly on the windows themselves the outlines and colors of the beautiful evocative details they were able to get a glimpse of through the windows. They drew and copied magical dawns, torrential rains, enchanted snowfalls, unbelievable sunsets; but little by little the glass lost its transparency. The years went by, new generations came and went, and little by little no parts of the manor was still transparent and no one could see the park outside anymore, but only the drawings on the glass.
Now weak and lazy, the residents of the manor keep drawing and re-drawing, copying and re-copying, following the outlines of drawings already there, hopelessly covering the transparency of the entire manor. The manor's residents are not only unable to gain access to the parks' marvels but they have covered up every corner of what was reality.
The manor's residents have thus lost little by little the park, the transparency, the gateways to reality,  themselves and God; they have lost their freedom and wisdom, identity and love.
Jesus is the servant-gatekeeper, the real one, the one the Father has given us to set us free from this colossal deception. Jesus has handed over the maps and the keys to new servant-gatekeepers for the benefit of all mankind, trusting that they would be at mankind's service. The Gospel of Jesus returns the maps and the keys to us so that we can open them.
At the transfiguration Jesus showed us not only who he was but also who we are. We are the transparency of God, in his own image and likeness.
Jesus came to give us our divine consistency: we are transparency of divine light, our very nature is that same light and we live in a park which is the transparency of God's love, power, and harmony.